2015 Vella and Debut Series Chapbook Contests Now Open

February 15, 2015

In just two days, Paper Nautilus celebrates its fourth anniversary, after being founded on a snowy sick day in my apartment.

Today, we are opening for our fourth round of the Vella Chapbook Contest, named after my grandparents – Nancy and Charles – whose generosity allowed me to found Paper Nautilus and pay for the first issue’s production. The prize for this contest is 100 perfect-bound copies, with ISBN. $11 entry fee.

Today we are also opening for our very first Debut Series Chapbook Contest, which is only open to writers who have yet to publish a chapbook or book-length work in any genre, with just a $5 entry fee. (In order to keep costs lower for writers, we have an additional option for this contest that, for $8, pays the entry fee and comes with a back issue). We have a strong commitment to emerging writers, and this is our new venture to truly showcase how serious we are about getting their voices out into the world. The prize for this contest is 50 hand-stitched copies, without ISBN.

Paper Nautilus produces an additional 15-25 copies of each title, for us to sell at conferences and book fairs, or directly on our website; for any sales generated in this way, authors will receive 10% royalties. If a title is popular, and the author wishes for more copies, we will happily pursue additional printing and sell them to you at-cost.

You can find more details about our process, business model, or other aspects of how we operate, by checking the links for each contest in the menu bar above. We welcome any and all questions, as transparency in our approach matters a lot to us.

Thank you and we look forward to reading your work between now and May 15th!